Archive Geometry Requirements
When you create an Archive Imagery order, the area you select (by choosing tiles in the Archive Explorer or uploading a GeoJSON file) is checked before the order is accepted. If something is wrong, you get immediate, specific feedback so you can adjust the area and try again.
Archive orders are checked against a smaller set of rules than Standard Area Coverage (AOI) orders: there are no maximum-area, bounding-box, or shape-compactness constraints. The area simply has to be solid, valid, not overly detailed, and above a small minimum size.
Archive vs. AOI
If you are placing a Standard Area Coverage order instead, see AOI Geometry Requirements, which adds size, dimension, and shape constraints on top of the rules below.
Requirements at a glance
| Requirement | Rule |
|---|---|
| No internal holes | The polygon must be solid, with no inner rings |
| Topological integrity | The boundary must not self-intersect or overlap |
| Vertex count | At most 500 vertices |
| Minimum area | The polygon must be at least 4 km² |
| Payload size | The GeoJSON file must be 2 MB or smaller |
Solid area: no internal holes
In GeoJSON, the first ring of a Polygon is the exterior boundary. Any additional rings are interior rings (holes cut out of the shape). Archive polygons must be solid: interior rings are not supported.
Rejection message
Polygons with internal holes are not supported. Please provide a solid area.
Topological integrity: no self-intersections
The boundary of the polygon must never cross itself. An "hourglass" or "figure-8" shape crosses its own edge, producing an invalid, non-simple geometry.
Rejection message
The boundary self-intersects or contains topological errors. Please check and repair your polygon.
Minimum area
An Archive polygon must cover at least 4 km². Smaller footprints are below the threshold for an archive order.
Rejection message
Order size too small: Archive orders require a minimum area of 4 km².
Vertex count
The outline must be described efficiently. Street-grid tracings and over-detailed outlines with thousands of points are rejected.
Rejection message
Too many points. Please simplify the outline of your area.
File size
The GeoJSON file you upload must be 2 MB or smaller. Oversized files are usually a symptom of an over-detailed outline; simplify the polygon before submitting.
Rejection message
The geometry file exceeds the 2MB limit. Please simplify or compress the file.